Afternoon Sky
by blonde.mindblower
Summary: The afternoon sky is so limitless, no restriction or strings attached...NejiIno oneshot.


-1**Helloez. I feel like writing a one-shot because I am stuck-ish on White Rain. I know what's gonna happen, but Im still trying to get the details and elaboration down…I've been sucky with that lately…and I know that I've been writing a lot of Naruto fics, so I should really start getting into other fandoms, but for some reason, the Naruto fandom just pulls me in more than any other…XD…anyways, this fic is what happens when I want to write something deep and have a can of Squirt. Have fun.**

_**Afternoon Sky**_

The day was clear; the sky perfect. Neji narrowed his eyes at it while his mind wheeled around shadowy thoughts. The afternoon sky seemed to be mocking him. Limitless, beautiful; all while he was tied down to this earth and being bound to responsibilities and restrictions. He quietly made his way through the bustling Konoha Market, on the way to Team Gai's training grounds. As he reached the edge of the forest, he already heard the dull thuds echoing from the tree trunk Lee decided to murder today. As he began to get closer, a flash of green raced past him. He felt the air rush around him, and with quick reflexes, he caught the foot threatening to kick him in the face. Lee twisted around, and escaped Neji's grasp. He grinned.

"Isn't this day just youthful? Who knows how much training we can do today! And that sky is so inspiring! I feel as though I can accomplish anything today…Oh! I feel filled to the brim with youth! What about you, Neji?"

Neji glared at his teammate. Great. He didn't need to be reminded of the great expanse of blue above them. That was the problem with Lee. He just had no clue.

Just then, several kunai and shuriken whizzed past their faces. Oh, Tenten must be here already. Neji performed a rotation to block all of her flying weapons, while Lee tried dodging them all. Nice plan, Lee. Too bad it didn't work. As Lee grimaced at the shuriken that grazed his arm, Tenten leaped down from the trees, shortly followed by Gai.

"Tenten! The blossoming day of youth is almost as beautiful as your bright and cheery face!"

Tenten rolled her eyes, but she started to blush, right then and there. Gai gave Lee a thumbs-up, and Lee saluted him. Neji raised an eyebrow, but he really didn't feel like asking about their personal lives, so he dismissed it. "Well, as soon as your little youth-fest is over, I think we should start on the reason why we all wasted our lives coming here."

Gai shook his head. "Neji, Neji, will you ever understand that to be truly strong is to be filled with youth like Tenten and Lee?"

Neji ignored Gai. He heard this little speech almost everyday, and it was really getting on his nerves that Gai couldn't at least come up with something more original.

"Neji, how about you take a break from our training sessions for a while, and concentrate on your personal life You can join us today, but afterwards, just begin to talk to your fellow ninja."

"You know, great offer, but I'm going to have to give you a big, fat, no."

"If you never talk to the people of Konoha, never get to know them, then how can you protect them? Come on, Neji. I KNOW what I'm talking about. I mean the other day, Kakashi and I-"

"If it'll get you to shut up, then I'll do it."

"Great! Maybe there is hope for your youthfulness, Neji."

"Yeah, maybe…"

Gai made them do a numerous amount of insane things, and Neji expected that every time they trained, but today, Gai went too far. As they were jogging down to the east of the town, Gai noticed a little kid sitting by an electric fence, crying. Gai ran up to the kid.

"Hello. What's wrong? I'm a Jonin, so there's no need to be scared."

Neji mentally smirked. The poor little kid had no idea.

The kid already looked as though he saw something he wasn't intended to see. (like Gai's face, lol) "I-I dropped m-m-my ball on the other side of that fence. I tried to get over it, but I got burned." The kid then proceeded to show them his right hand, which had burned flesh in several places. Tenten closed her eyes and gasped, and Lee's mouth drooped into an O. Gai looked horrified and started to panic.

"Oh no! Oh no! What do I do?! What do I do?!" He grabbed Lee and started shaking him violently. "WHAT DO WE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!?!?"

Lee looked nervous. "Hehe…"

"We do the smart thing to do. We bring this boy over to the hospital, and let the medic nins over there take care of him. Tenten, why don't you take him?"

Tenten nodded at Neji, and took the boy's okay hand, and started to walk him down towards the hospital. Gai wiped his brow and plopped down onto the ground. "Well, looks like this is a job well done." He beamed like he just won the lottery. "Hey, Neji, I think it would be really nice if when the kid was treated, he could get his ball back. Would you do us the honors?"

Neji shook his head. "I swear, I have to do all the work around here." He gathered his chakra at his feet, and easily jumped over the fence. Once on the other side, he picked up the squishy red playground ball, and hopped over the fence once more. Lee grinned at Neji, and then slapped him on the back, knocking Neji into the fence.

"Ah!"

"Oh,, Neji! I'm so sorry, it's just that I was filled with youth of your fantastic achievement that I-"

"Save it." The back of Neji's shirt was in shreds. Neji gritted his teeth to distract him from the pain. "I'll just clean it up at home." Lee got that fiery look in his eyes. Oh dear god. This was all too much for Neji.

"Neji! I will escort you to the hosptial!"

"While that's very kind of you, I refus-"

"No!" Lee then picked up Neji and began running towards Konoha hospital. Apparently, Gai preferred to stay behind and watch his student's misery from afar.

The people in the hospital entrance were amused/disturbed when Lee rushed in with Neji closing up chakra points furiously wherever he could reach them. Lee then spotted Tenten's jellyrolls, no, excuse me, hairstyle, on the other side of the waiting room.

"My youthful blossom of joy!" Lee dropped Neji, and ran over to her. Ino was standing right next to her, clipboard in hand, discussing how they were going to contact the child's parents. Neji picked himself up, winced, and walked slowly over to them.

"So how about we just-" Ino tapped her pen on the clipboard and looked up. White eyes met her own with a cautioned curiosity. She sensed an intense suffering, and realized that all the mental distress was locked up in the Hyuga prodigy standing right in front of her. Ino cocked her head at him for a second, trying to read his thoughts, until she felt a tug at her white nurse's gown.

"I-ino-san?"

Ino bent down to the boy's height. "What's wrong?"

"Well, my hand just really hurts…"

Ino smacked her forehead. "I almost forgot that you were still sitting there! That's what happens when Tenten walks in and just HAS to talk about getting you home. Come on, let's go into the clinic." She looked Neji over and frowned. "What happened to you? You look like you got attacked by a wild animal."

Neji glared at Lee. "Actually, to be precise, it was a green BEAST." He stressed the last word. Lee gulped.

"Hehe. Come on Tenten. I'm sure Gai-sensei is waiting for us."

"But what about-"

Lee yanked her arm, and speed-dragged Tenten out of the hospital. Ino and the boy started walking towards a room down the hall. She noticed that Neji wasn't following her. She turned around and motioned for him to follow. Neji sighed and went into the room second-to-last in the south hallway of the hospital.

The whole room was white, and smelled like antiseptic.(duh, they're in a friggin hospital)

Ino set the boy down on the patient's seat thing, and Neji sat in a chair in the corner of the room, sitting upright so his back wouldn't touch the chair.

"So, what happened?"

The little kid snapped out of his little daydream. "Well, I was playing kickball with some friends, and then we kicked the ball over the fence. We didn't know what to do, so they just went away. I tried climbing the fence, but once I got ahold of it, my hand burned and now it's a nasty black color."

Ino got some bandages. "Well, I can see that. Here, this will hurt, but think about something else. It'll only hurt for a second."

Neji observed as she put on some ointment for burns, and then wrapped up the kid's hand. Ino reached into the pocket of her white nursing dress, and pulled out a Tootsie pop. "Here, the best part of visiting the doctor is the sucker!" The kid squealed, and stuck the sucker in his mouth.

"Ino, I have to disagree with you. The best part of visiting the doctor is being knocked unconscious so that you won't have to see what they do to you." The boy's sucker almost fell out of his mouth. Ino shot him a glare. "Stupid smart-ass."

"Ino, that would be an oxymoron-"

"Shut up and get on the damn table!"

Neji smirked and sat on the table. Ino walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a big needle. She then jokingly added, "Now, do you prefer the stuff that knocks you out in two seconds, or the one that makes your conscious fade slowly, because I have both kinds right here."

Neji frowned. "Ino, I hope you didn't forget that there is a young child in proximity."

Ino rolled her eyes and put away the needle. Then, all of a sudden, a kid with light brown hair, and a male nurse's outfit ran into Ino's clinic. "Ino-chaaan, you are in trou-ble!"

Neji stared at the kid. He was about 14 or 15, their age, and he sounded like a Valley girl.

Ino whipped around and had a look on her face of pure annoyance. "Gawd, Steve, what do you want?"

Steve saw Neji, put on a coy smile and winked. Neji shuddered. "Oooh, who's your new friend?"

Ino, unfortunately, being able to read people's minds, saw something in Steve's mind that she wasn't intended to see. She twitched. "Steve, I'm taking care of somebody right now, go back to your own floor!"

Steve was staring at where Neji's shirt was singed off and smiled. "Okay, Sakura just wanted me to tell you that she'll sooo never forgive you for switching schedules with her. She is now sponge-bathing old people, and none of them are sexy."

Neji couldn't help but smirk again, and Ino started cracking up. "But she should know how much I'm scared of old people. She's working for an honorable cause, she should be proud." She said the last part sarcastically, and Steve started laughing as well. "Well, I'll totally tell her. Oh, and Ino?"

"What is it now, Steve?"

"Can I borrow some lotion?"

"Get your own damn lotion!"

Neji looked at them quizzically. _"Wha? Lotion?"_

Steve made a whiny noise. "Oh, but you know how dry my hands get! No guy will ever look at me if I have Godzilla hands! Barry at the front desk even stopped talking to me, and I think I'll just die!" Steve now sounded like a constipated Valley girl.

"Go home, Steve!" Ino kicked him out, and outside, you could hear him start crying.

Ino then got back to healing Neji. The boy was still there, innocently sucking his Tootsie Pop, but he had a disturbed look on his face.

"What was with the lotion?"

Ino began unraveling bandages. "Well, all of the nurses and doctors here use a lot of lotion, because after washing your hands so much, they get really dry and nasty. Steve is an extreme case, but he never has any lotion on him." He heard a really loud crunch, and looked behind him. The kid got to the center of the Tootsie Pop.

"Hey, Ino-san! It took me ten really long sucks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop!"

Ino smiled. "Remind me to contact the authorities. Geez, Neji, your burns are about ten times worse then the kid's! Not to mention that your shirt is beyond help."

"I didn't need to come to the hospital just to hear that." Neji took his shirt off, and Ino began healing it with her chakra, trying to get her mind out of the gutter. As the first burn was disappearing, she saw Steve at the door, looking through the window, drooling. Ino kept hearing the words 'Damn sexy." playing over and over in his mind. She sent him a well-deserved death glare, and Steve shrank away from the door.

"Well, Neji, looks like you have a new fan boy."

Neji tensed and heaved a sigh. "This day is just getting better and better," he muttered.

The burn marks weren't completely healed when Ino was done. She put some ointment on his back, and started wrapping it up. When she finished, she reached into her pocket and pulled out another sucker. "The best part about visiting the doctor is-"

"No thank you."

Ino looked at him and repeated, "The best part about visiting the doctor is…?"

Neji sighed. She wasn't going to let him win. "The sucker."

Ino grinned. "Good thing you're a genius, otherwise you wouldn't of learned that so fast." She tossed him the sucker, and peeked out of the room. "You might want to put your shirt back on. Steve's waiting. Oh, and don't forget the sucker!"

Neji shook his head and pocketed the sucker. "I'll save it for later." Ino shrugged and popped a cherry Tootsie Pop in her mouth.

After carefully avoiding Steve, Ino and Neji accompanied the kid to his house. Neji wanted to "Reassure Gai of the boy's safety." (but we NejiIno lovers know the REAL reason, right?) The mother had a look of relief on her face when she saw that her kid was okay. "Thank you so much! He normally injures himself a lot, but not this badly. A very strange looking man came by here and dropped off your ball, Komaru!"

Ino snickered, knowing exactly who she was talking about, hearing the whole story from Neji on the way to Komaru's house. Komaru flashed a huge grin at Neji and Ino before running inside. "Thanks! You guys are like a bunch of superheroes! Neji-san with his glaring, and Ino-san with her healing and suckers!" The mother had an apologetic look on her face.

"Now, honey, don't scare the nice couple."

Ino blushed, and Neji looked a little taken aback. "But we hardly-"

"Thanks again!" The door shut, and you could hear the mom scolding her son inside.

"Well," Ino said hesitantly, "I hope you feel better. And for you own safety, stay away from both electric fences and Steve. Although I think the latter of the two is more hazardous to your health."

Neji nodded and smirked. "Thank you. I'll be sure to remember that." Ino smiled and walked back towards the hospital. Neji watched her leave, and then decided it was time to go back to the Hyuga complex. The sky was a rainbow of oranges and pinks. Thinking of Ino's eyes, Neji remembered the clear blue sky from earlier. "Funny, but I'm beginning to miss the afternoon sky."

**Well, whaddaya think? Remember, I can't improve my writing without reviews! And it made me sad that I only got one as a birthday prezzie, even though the latest White Rain did suck. It WILL get better, as long as I have my reviews! If u want me to expand on this fic, then go ahead and say so, but I'm keeping this as a one-shot for now. Byez!**


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